The teenager was among the 13 boys who fled the juvenile home on Monday night.

HIGHLIGHTS

'They proceed to watch porn and then torture and sodomise vulnerable boys'

The boys in the juvenile home aren't even given sweaters by the authorities

Scared of abuse at the hands of inmates, a teenager fled from a juvenile home in Jahangirpuri on Monday and approached Mail Today for help. He was afraid that he would meet the same fate as other inmates -torture and sodomy.

Raju (name changed) is an orphan and an inmate at Prayas Children's Home for Boys in Jahangirpuri. He said that juveniles at the children's home consumed drugs and watched porn films on mobile phones, before sodomising each other. He feared that he could be the next target and so fled from the juvenile home along with 12 others on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

Narrating his ordeal, Raju told the reporter whom he met while she was on an assignment in west Delhi that the children of other dormitories used to consume drugs that they brought from outside. They even sold drugs to children. After getting a high, they used to watch porn videos on their mobiles and then sodomise vulnerable kids.

He said he would surrender before the court and not police because cops would send him back to the juvenile home. Raju was sent to Prayas on October 24 after he was booked under IPC Section 377. Earlier, he was in a juvenile home at Delhi Gate. Claiming that the living conditions in the juvenile home in Jahangirpuri are poor, he alleged that the children were not given proper food.

"Good quality food is only served when someone comes for inspection," he said, adding that the authorities have not given them sweaters despite the onset of winter. "I am forced to wear the same half-sleeve T-shirt every day," he said.He said he wanted to study, but the authorities are not providing him study material to clear his Class 10 exam.

Raju told Mail Today that he would introduce her to another child who also fled along with him, but he never returned. The authorities at Prayas Children's Home for Boys in Jahangirpuri said that around 13 children fled from the home on Monday.

"Seven to eight children have been nabbed and brought back, while remaining are still at large," Superintendent Mukesh Kumar told MAIL TODAY. Around 135 children live in the home and 55 of them are allowed to go to government school in the area. When the reporter visited the juvenile home, she found there was no security and the children who went to school were allowed to enter premises without checking.

"They bring drugs, mobile phones, money and other things that are restricted in the juvenile home in their school bags. They hide them in their dormitories as CCTV cameras are not installed there as per the privacy policy," a source said. Despite repeated attempts,

MAIL TODAY could not get the comments of the authorities on sodomy-related allegations inside the juvenile home. Senior authorities at the juvenile home confirmed that the children were often caught with mobiles.

"Few days ago, one of the juveniles had stolen a mobile of the staff," said Mukesh, adding that the theft was captured on the CCTV camera and the juvenile was identified. When asked why large number of kids escaped from the juvenile home, he said, "These children want to run away for no reason. It's just that they want to escape."

There are around 16 juvenile homes in the national Capital. This year, around `40 lakh budget was allocated by the government to Prayas Children's Home for Boys in Jahangirpuri.